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Anaplan vs SAP ERP comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Anaplan
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Business Performance Management (1st), Production Planning (5th), Predictive Analytics (4th)
SAP ERP
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
ERP (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Anaplan and SAP ERP aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Anaplan is designed for Business Performance Management and holds a mindshare of 13.3%, down 16.1% compared to last year.
SAP ERP, on the other hand, focuses on ERP, holds 20.2% mindshare, down 22.7% since last year.
Business Performance Management
ERP
 

Q&A Highlights

NC
Nov 09, 2021
 

Featured Reviews

Antonio Flor - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time data integration enhances operational efficiency and flexibility
As a client developer and solutions architect, I use Anaplan for building modules and deploying logic end-to-end. I work closely with the business in an agile manner to ensure the model aligns with business needs Anaplan offers flexibility in building different options within the platform. The…
Srinivasan Kuppuswamy - PeerSpot reviewer
The amazing, robust framework with unlimited scalability earns its #1 status
The solution is not ready for the current e-commerce environment. Its was built for large enterprises who need to predictably optimize their human, material, and financial resources. ERP has evolved and businesses are changing. There are not many large corporations. Most are small enterprises with the capabilities of large enterprises through networking and platform integration. Some companies promote products but get things done with other enterprises as a network. Companies do not want to create new capacity but want to leverage existing capacity with innovative products. They do not want to spend resources on duplicating capacity or facilities. I do not think any ERP product is ready to support this environment so ERPs as a whole might end up being used for back-office functions only. It is not easy to evolve an ERP product because its intent is to integrate functions and processes within an organization. Whereas, in the new business model, processes are not limited to one's own enterprise but cut across different enterprises. There is no enterprise solution as this point in time for the current e-commerce environment so companies must integrate with many solutions.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Anaplan's strongest feature is that its GUI is very modern and user-friendly."
"You don't need to have a programming language to use Anaplan."
"The solution works very well for budgeting."
"This product has a very good modeling feature, and its graphical representation of visualizations has also been valuable."
"Technical support has been good."
"It's highly flexible. If you've got a complex environment with complex calculations, you can build that out. So that's a really good positive."
"Anaplan's in-memory calculation engine is super-fast compared to the old tools we previously used. You enter the data and everything shows up in one go."
"It's simple to use with a lot of functions."
"SAP ERP's interface is pretty easy nowadays, as it has evolved over time and has been made as user-friendly as a person would like it."
"The tool can be very much customized."
"It has been quite stable so far."
"SAP ERP is one of the most well-integrated solutions with all of the applications in my company, making it one of the most advantageous traits of the product."
"The valuable feature of SAP ERP is that everything is connected and under one roof, creating a unified system."
"Overall the solution is very good in the industry."
"I like the solution’s features in finance, supply chain, sales, and distribution."
"It gives us full control over each change, to the level of the individual field in a master record, including certificates."
 

Cons

"The integration technique should be a little bit easier."
"Anaplan could be improved with a stronger consolidation module."
"The cloud engine slows down when working with a large dataset. It still lacks a powerful engine."
"There are so many business rules to set up in the system that as a business user it's hard to gauge what they're doing and it's possible to get lost."
"Anaplan could enhance its user interface by including a more user-friendly API."
"The price of the solution can improve."
"One key area of improvement is pricing."
"The visualization tools in the product are limited in comparison to other reporting tools."
"In general, a user should attend training before they can use this platform. There's definitely a learning curve. As a new user or employee, there may be some difficulty with onboarding."
"There should be better support provided to be able to migrate to S/4HANA easier."
"The initial setup of SAP ERP is complex and it took a lot of time."
"It has a high cost."
"Though SAP ERP's FICO module is a strong part of the product, its integration capabilities can be made stronger."
"It is a little difficult to use."
"The speed to build and the speed to deliver could be better."
"The flexibility in using the software could improve. I am from a product background and I've been testing a lot of applications, for example, Informatics. The UI, features, and cloud version could improve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of Anaplan is a challenge for clients, especially if they don't have an ongoing long-term use case for it. It's a $50,000 licensing fee just to get started. Clients need a strong business case to switch from Excel to Anaplan. But if clients have used something similar in the past, such as Hyperion or other solutions, that's not a factor because they know what to expect."
"A value-for-money product and a very reasonable price compared to competitors like SAP or IBM."
"We are currently using a free workspace license for 90 days. We are satisfied with the price of the solution. There are additional costs if you want more storage, the default limit is 250 GB."
"The license is a yearly subscription. There are three licensing tiers: the model builder, planner, and the reporting."
"The tool’s pricing is reasonable and competitive with other solutions."
"The price of the solution is expensive."
"This is an expensive product and if the price were reduced then it would attract more customers."
"This is a yearly subscription. So a customer initially buys a workspace and specifies how much GB they want. The minimum starts at around 30 GB. You can buy multiple workspaces."
"Licensing can vary, but for educational institutions, there are often favorable conditions."
"I am not sure. However, extensions cost approximately $100,000 or$200,000."
"The licensing costs are slightly on the higher side. They need to make it more competitive."
"I rate SAP ERP's pricing a six or seven out of ten."
"I rate the product's price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. SAP ERP is a costly tool."
"The product has high pricing."
"When we talk about pricing it is expensive. On a scale of one to ten, it would rank a two. There are no additional fees but the user licenses are high."
"The solution is expensive so I rate cost a five out of ten."
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Answers from the Community

NC
Nov 9, 2021
Nov 9, 2021
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time consolidating numbers into one space, employees can reshift their focus to deep-diving into the numbers, which is a huge advantage because it frees them up to do more value-added work instead. I also li...
See 2 answers
JM
Oct 13, 2021
SAP ERP and Anaplan serve different purposes and actually work well together.   Think of SAP ERP focused on the Actuals, while Anaplan models the future. The reason why I’ve seen clients use Anaplan for planning vs. SAP BPC is Anaplan is more flexible and can easily keep up with constant changes in business planning.  While BPC is more of a consolidation tool, with Anaplan you can also have your driver-based models in a system vs. running them offline and only putting the answer into a system.   Therefore, my recommendation is to use both.
Janet Staver - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 9, 2021
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time consolidating numbers into one space, employees can reshift their focus to deep-diving into the numbers, which is a huge advantage because it frees them up to do more value-added work instead. I also like that Analplan is a collaborative solution - it makes building out forecasts and modeling data much easier than just using Excel because it is in the cloud and is more structured. Anaplan is also very well connected. For example, data from one use case can be used in other models. Moreso, if a change is made to one model, it will be changed in all other models as well. Although Anaplan requires a slight learning curve and some training, initial setup is fairly easy. And for the times where you have technical questions, I have found that support is adequate. However, Anaplan is quite expensive. Nevertheless, I am very impressed with the stability of the solution and its performance. Not only that, but I am impressed by its ability to scale phenomenally. SAP ERP has been recognized as the best solution in the class of ERP products. In addition, it provides excellent visibility into the details of enterprise resource planning. Like Anaplan, it is very scalable. I think one of the best features SAP ERP has to offer is the claim management. One disadvantage is that you cannot easily create customizations. Also, outside of the SAP for RPA it is required for you to use an additional solution on a platform as a service if you want to extend the solutions. Another downside is that the initial setup is not straightforward and can be quite complex, so you have to be prepared to handle that. Conclusion: Overall, I would give Anaplan a 9 out of 10 rating. Anaplan has many more advantages for me than SAP ERP and since both options are very pricey, Anaplan takes the win because I like that it has so much more to offer.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
31%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Retailer
6%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are your main use cases for Anaplan?
Anaplan is an industry-leading cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) platform that combines business planning and analytics in a single solution. It is designed to assist organizations...
Is Board better than Anaplan as a Business Intelligence (BI) solution?
We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and simu...
Is Anaplan better than SAP ERP?
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time co...
What do you like most about SAP ERP?
The solution has made the most significant impact on our human resources function, specifically in HR operations and HR analytics. One feature of SAP ERP that I found most valuable is its use of co...
What needs improvement with SAP ERP?
There is a need for improvement in the business analytics aspect in financial reporting and also in sales and marketing analytics.
What is your primary use case for SAP ERP?
I am currently working in a group of companies, and we have the SAP HCM module. It is not fully implemented due to cloud issues, but we plan to transition to it. We are also using SAP S4HANA and ha...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

HP, ForeScout, DocuSign, EAT, Pandora, Aviva, Intel Security, Zalora
B&G Manufacturing, Unilever, Life is good Inc., Joy Global Inc., City of Cape Town, Bhopal Municipal, Corporation (BMC), adidas Group, Butcher & Packer Supply Company, Franklin Valve L.P., Evoshield, Prime Meats, a Norsan Group company, EMC Corporation, Varian Medical Systems Inc., FC Bayern Mªnchen AG, AkzoNobel Chemicals B.V., T¾V Rheinland, Pacific Drilling S.A., Fire & Rescue New South Wales, University of Amsterdam, Pa_alon S.A.
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan, Oracle, IBM and others in Business Performance Management. Updated: February 2025.
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